Here we are at 7 months old! The downhill to her first birthday. Have they invented a time machine yet so that I can go back and savor her little skinny newborn legs a little bit longer? There are no skinny legs these days!
The days sure fly together and I have to be very intentional about noticing her developments otherwise I miss them! Blake will say, "Have you seen her do that before?" and I will have seen it before but not noticed that it was something special! I'm glad I'm doing these blogs so that I'll have record of these moments between her milestones. I also journal for her once a month, but that's more my hopes and thoughts for her. I also write in her baby book but there are not enough lines on the page to say everything I want! So I'm happy to have a place to reflect a bit more.
Kate is starting to move around a lot more. She's not always super thrilled about that though! Sometimes she's goes after toys while sitting up and then she rolls right over! Sometimes she keeps going and other times she gives up!
We are having lots of fun during play time these days! She mostly just wants to put whatever she can grab in her mouth, and to be honest she would be perfectly happy if that was all she did all day but I'm trying to set aside time where she looks, touches, and plays without chewing. She is doing very well! She loves to watch me stack these little blocks and cheer for her when she knocks them over.
We've really been working on our tummy time. She is starting to be more comfortable on her tummy- finding her strength. We usually have some story time while she is on her tummy every day. We also use water play, panting (with the paint inside of the bag), and a sensory board.
I've decided to use monthly themes with Kate. It's mostly to give me something to do, but I hope Kate enjoys it too. This month I'm using the theme "Flower Garden"... hence the flower themed sensory board I made for her! I've just started this last week, so I don't have many pictures from it. (I might do another post about all of our theme's activities.)
During our play time I've noticed her watching my hands more when I do action songs. She enjoys songs and books the most. She also loves it when we make "music" with our little shakers. She participates by chewing on her shaker. ;)
She has also discovered my feet. Oh, this was so funny! She simply stopped playing and became fixated on them. I couldn't tell what she was looking at but then I realized and moved my foot a little closer. I'm pretty sure we spent like 15 minutes of me teasing her with my foot when this picture was taken! She of course, wanted to eat my toes!
Now, this next picture needs a disclaimer. I promise that I don't have the TV on all of the time, but sometimes the afternoon is long and so I need a little bit of stimulation that still allows me to still give Kate attention. OK... now that that's out of the way. This has become a common position for Kate this month. She will sit with her head all the way back (for a long time!) trying to watch the TV. Makes us laugh but hey, at least she's getting a good stretch in!
She is enjoying her high chair! She will sit in it and play if I'm in the kitchen and she wants my company or if Blake and I are eating at the table. There isn't much to report on her solid food status. She's been having issues digesting so we've cut back. She tried applesauce (Still a little tart for her taste!) and bananas that I mashed up with some of my milk (which she loved!) but we are working to figure out the best way to get her adjusted to solids. She is drinking water from a sippy cup a little bit now, but she prefers to drink it from mommy and daddy's cup! Other than that, still drinking momma's milk about 5 times per day or more shorter feedings depending on her mood.
I also realized that I'm not getting enough pictures of Kate with her daddy! You can look forward to seeing more next month!
Perhaps the biggest development we've had lately is that Kate is on a nap schedule now! After much prayer and even some tears (of my own!) on some difficult afternoons I decided it was time. I'm trying to wake her up in the morning around 6:45 and she'll take a morning nap about 2 hours later and then a longer nap about 3 hours after that. Depending on how her second nap went she may or may not have an evening cat nap. She continues to go down for the night at 8. She's napping in her rock-in-play but at least it's in her room and she is actually falling asleep regurally! This was a big win for us! Of course, it's not kept perfectly every day (yesterday and today she's woken up at 6 so that changes things a bit) but the routine really helps us! It's honestly like we have a whole new baby. She is so much happier.
We celebrated Kate's first Easter! It was pretty easy to fill her basket- a couple of books, a rattle, some bubbles, and empty eggs. She was in a really good mood on Easter morning! I called her "my little ham and cheese sandwich". Also... it was super crazy trying to get a morning nap in and pictures with her basket and clean dress all before heading out to church in the morning!
The Texas bluebonnets have been in full bloom this month and I'm a little sad we haven't been on a spring road trip because there are not any to be seen on our part of town. Thankfully there are some by my parent's house and we were able to go out so that my dad could take some pictures. She did pretty well considering that the tall bluebonnets are really sort of scary! There were some tears at points though. My mom was singing this silly song called "Clap Clap Clap Your Hands" over and over again to cheer her up and I'm pretty sure the song will forever be running through my brain! But I loved how she looked at the flowers with such wonder when we sat her in them for the first time. We worked double duty trying to keep her from eating them!
Oh, motherhood. This journey is one that cannot be perfected. You have moments where you feel like you are Super Mom, doing everything right, only to be followed by moments where you feel like you can't get anything right. But thanks be to God! For he grants me new mercies each morning. He humbles me and covers me in lavish grace beyond what I could ever deserve.
I want to end this with a song we sang on Sunday. It nearly stopped my heart the words spoke so deeply to me. My relationship with Christ has grown to a new level since this precious baby girl came into my life. I think part of it is because I'm realizing that the way I look at her
is the way God looks at me.
is the way God looks at me.
Hope you enjoy this song!
You're a good, good Father.
It's who You are, it's who You are, it's who You are.
And I'm loved by You.
It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am.
Oh, it's love so undeniable,
I can hardly speak.
Peace so unexplainable,
I can hardly think.
As You call me deeper still,
As You call me deeper still,
As You call me deeper still,
into love, love, love ...
